Tough night for sleep. We were all wide awake until we took pity on Clay and turned out the lights at 12:30. Took me forever to fall asleep and I didn't sleep much at all. Dave made omelets for breakfast, we packed up and hit the road. I loved Lucerne. It was storybook beautiful with the fabulous lake, surrounding mountains, the river running through downtown and the great restaurants along the water. Our drive out of town took us along a series of sparkling aqua green lakes and wide green valleys. Eventually we turned south and climbed alongside the roaring Schwarze Lucine River.
The mighty, glacier-fed Schwarze Lucine River
It wasn’t long until we arrived in Grindelwald. Grindelwald is the epicenter of summer mountain sports. We got turned around looking for the tram but then spotted lots of paragliders floating down from spectacular heights in the mountains.
Finally, frustrated and confused, we found the tourist office and got some good, professional advice. After a short parking adventure, we hiked uptown and boarded the tram. It's a long way up to the top. Grindelwald, first, an inspiring 25-minute ride. As you ascend, you are treated to a magnificent mountain panorama, a roaring mountain stream, bucolic farmsteads with contented cows and lots of people practicing various ways to get back down the mountain. Those included three-wheel carts, ziplines, soaring, biking and hiking.
We disembarked at the terminal and made the short walk up to the restaurant and Cliff Walk. The Cliff Walk is cool. It’s a metal walkway bolted to the sheer side of the cliff. There are hoards of vacationing Chinese tourists who seem to be spending all of their time there creating their own personal fantasies and streaming them to the whole world. It was the middle of the day too so the Cliff Walk and sidewalks were packed. Despite all that, the views were amazing and the weather dramatic.
Don and I headed back to the parking ramp to retrieve the car. The parking ramps are quite confusing. Instead of going upwards, they tend to extend underground. Stairways go to nowhere, in this case, to some dead end doorways with bank-grade steel doors. Under the garage is a kind of bomb shelter. We entered on floor four and could not find a way to get to floor six. Finally, out of desperation, we tried the adjoining garage and finally found our car. I had left the parking ticket in the car so needed to get it validated in order to exit. Got to the car, grabbed the ticket and walked back to the exit. Got there, reached into my pocket. Where was the ticket??? It was gone. Back to the car, I searched my suitcase and backpack, and looked all through the car. Nothing. Decided to drive the car to the exit. Still couldn’t find the ticket. Drove back you the original parking spot on the off chance that I had dropped on the ground. Nope. In desperation, I looked under the seat one more time. There it was. Jeez.
Try saying these two street names fast.
It seems like every house has flowers in the window.
Drove to our AirBnb. The house is right off the highway and backs up to a roaring river. It’s kind of a fixer-upper. Most of the windows don’t have screens. The lamps and fixtures are cheap. They advertise “sleeps six” but that only applies if you sleep with someone else. Not our style. Still, I’m looking forward to a peaceful night with the river to lull me to sleep.
Our house had a "rooster" theme. I loved the downspouts.
We decided late to grab dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant (thereafter referred to as “that crappy Indian restaurant”), came home and crashed.
Today’s frequent mantra: “Don needs butter”. Random movie reference today: “Shut the fuck up Donnie”, (The Big Lebowski).
The place we’re staying has that casual half-assed fixed up feel of a ski bum crash pad as if to say, “Why spend a lot of money making it nice when they are just going to mess it up anyway?”